Killing Sunshine
by Delena Aneled Hupp
Summary: A lesson in death: It’s not so great, Selphie muses; naught but a shallow epiphany and a well of silence. Mildly AU; Retribution Arc


_**Killing Sunshine**_

_**By**_ Delena/Aneled Hupp

_**Rating**_ T/ PG

_**Genre**_ General/Angst

_**Legalities**_ All recognisable characters present in this derivative work are property of Square Enix and all that jazz.

_**Mission Summary**_ A lesson in death: It's not so great, Selphie muses; naught but a shallow epiphany and a well of silence.

_**Mission Statistic Warnings**_ Character death and raw pessimism. Also, this is an AU of an AU XD; read on for the answer.

_**Mission Status Report **_One-shot, part of a series.

_**Pre-Mission Briefing **_Why is Fuu a part of all this? Why is Kairi in the thick of a fight, _why is Sora being such a bastard_? Well, think of this as a teaser of bigger things to come; this is a collaboration between two friends and myself; you can read a bit more about it on my bio page. Just be patient with us, I know some of you will enjoy what we have waiting, so for now, partake of snips of the girls' journey across worlds. PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT THIS IS MERELY A "WHAT IF" SCENARIO FOR OUR AU.

_**End briefing-Begin Document**_

Selphie looks on, dazed.

Slowly, shakily, she brings a hand to her chest and touches gently, as if applying any real pressure will shatter this remaining illusion of life to which she is so desperately clinging and losing her grip on. Warmth… more than usual.

She barely glances down to note the brilliant bloom that melts from her fingertips and she now feels a scorching ache well at her back, now in her chest, now bursting out and all around and she's _dazzled_ by the overwhelming pain. She doesn't know when the ground met her knees, yet here she is, palms cold from the marble tiling beneath them, trying so very hard to _just breathe, __**dammit**_! She vaguely muses on the whereabouts of her friends, her once friends, and anyone else that may have been present mere moments ago before Riku's blade betrayed him, no… _before Sora betrayed him_. There are no sounds around her, but she feels a hand on her shoulder and an arm around her waist.

She breathes in, sharply, shallowly, and goddamn does it hurt. She swears she's drowning and before she can entertain this fantasy any longer the coppery taste of blood flows over her tongue and she retches violently.

"_Selphie!_"

For the life of her _death of me, she corrects herself in morbid amusement_ she can't place who it is calling for her. Her thoughts are slowly running away from her; she finds herself worrying over that doll of Lulu's she accidentally tore when she was twelve, the one she buried among the roots of the great trees on the play islands… Lulu would be furious if she ever found out, Selphie thinks. She remembers a clock tower and her first flight and how very much she'd rather be flying right now than lying face down on the- No, she hasn't reached the floor but she can see it looming just above her, below her; it's in her line of sight… but why hasn't she touched it? The arms around her tighten and she notes with some degree of whimsy that someone's holding her from behind; she feels human warmth covering her back.

Irvine? She thinks briefly… When did he go back to school? Whoever hit her in the face with that volleyball will pay dearly when she gets back from the health clinic. 

No, not at school.

But Sora's here, and Riku, too. Kairi's here… but Fuu doesn't belong here. Didn't belong there. _she's with me now, that must count for something_

She wants to giggle, but there's no time for that now; doesn't Fuu realise they need to get moving? Wakka's big game is almost starting.

Stray thoughts of blitzball evaporate as the rushing sound of blood beating within Selphie's ears wanes dramatically. There's no white light here, just black. The very last thought to register even somewhat coherently with the fallen melee soldier is merely a resounding and heavily disappointing epiphany,

"Oh."

And the rasping ceases.

---------------------------------------------

Kairi's hands warble unpleasantly, her breathing is shaky, she feels a horrible sick bubbling in her stomach, and her knees are unsteady beneath her as she tries in vain to keep her wits about her. It's in the aftermath, the now, when Riku has isolated himself in absolute horror at what his own hand had mistakenly done, when Leon's expression is pained and tensed, when Fuu has all but vanished, that Kairi finally feels the need to collapse and never move from that spot again.

_you kill the Sun, you kill our hope_

Hours pass in Hollow Bastion _Radiant Garden, Aerith preferred it always be called that_ as Kairi remains slumped over Merlin's sturdy dining table contemplating the absolute loss of light in the universe with the preceding death of Aerith, the only person Kairi ever felt must emanate the warmth of a mother, and now Selphie… Their beam of sunshine in the body of a young girl. Maybe they aren't meant to know the light, she thinks sourly; maybe this darkness is what everything deserves. A reality that could take so beautiful a light as Aerith and Selphie could only deserve a cold and punishing darkness.

Kairi's dead-end thinking is temporarily derailed as she feels a hand nudge her lightly; Fuu has finally reappeared now that the last bit of day is all but a memory. Fuu's expression is utterly guarded; save her eyes, which poorly mask what Kairi is certain is absolute heartbreak. Though she's braced herself for a storm from the older girl, Kairi is entirely unprepared for the immediate build up of water in Fuu's eyes that the wind-wielder fails to blink away in time. Kairi realises only now that Fuu's already lost two people who once meant the worlds to her, Raijin and Seifer; her growing fondness for the pixie cut ray of sun has not gone unnoticed by Kairi over the passing two years.

Fuu lays her chakram to rest on the table before Kairi, and with it her allegiance to this cause.

"I'm sorry," Fuu's voice wavers for only a second,

"I quit."

In this moment, as the dark of night creeps in uninvited into the farthest corners of Merlin's tiny house, Kairi understands true loneliness.

_You are my sunshine, my only sunshine  
you make me happy when skies are grey  
you'll never know dear, how much I love you,  
please don't take my sunshine away._

_**Mission complete**_

_**Post-mission analysis**_ Strike your fancy? Stay tuned for more.

**End Transmission.**


End file.
